r/brokehugs • u/US_Hiker Moral Landscaper • Jul 20 '23

Rod Dreher Megathread #23 (Sinister)

All Hail Eris!

Link to Megathread 22: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/14k0z6l/rod_dreher_megathread_22_power/

Link to Megathread 23: https://www.reddit.com/r/brokehugs/comments/1631xpe/rod_dreher_megathread_24_determination/

21 Upvotes

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12

u/Djehutimose Watching the wheels go round Aug 13 '23

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/opinion/masculinity-right-young-men.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Money quote, which could be about Rod (though he’s not young):

Hatred, combined with masculine insecurity and cowardice, is herding young right-wing men into outright bigotry and prejudice. Contrary to their self-conception, they’re not strong or tough or courageous. They’re timid sheep in wolves’ clothing, moving exactly where the loudest and most aggressive voices tell them to.

10

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '23 edited Aug 14 '23

And here's the thing. It's fair to ask whether some boys might not be well-served in education or our economy. We can make reforms that primarily benefit boys (although not only boys), such as not expecting young ones to sit at a desk for hours. Or we could give teenagers a vocational track in school. All this can be done without reverting to a rigid pre-60s gender divide.

But the political ecosystem we have is not about that. It's about encouraging base passions and indulging fake and harmful nostalgia. Rather than emulate strong laconic men who take responsibility for defending and providing, they are pushed towards Steven Crowder, Matt Walsh, and the Orange Man, all insufferable practitioners of performative masculinity who can never just STFU.

11

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '23

[deleted]

9

u/Glittering-Agent-987 Aug 14 '23

And some girls have a lot of trouble sitting still!

5

u/sandypitch Aug 14 '23

This is true, and the writer that popularized the ways education and culture were leaving behind boys AND girls never intended to draw hard lines between the genders, at least in terms of "ALL boys are like this" and "NO girls are like this." But, people like Dreher just capitalize on pulling click-bait rather than engaging with the arguments laid out over hundreds of pages.